


I Choose You

by aionslittlerodent



Series: Haikyuu!! Drabbles and Minifics [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bad Pick-Up Lines, EVERYONE IS SO PRECIOUS, Fluff, M/M, Multi, TsukkiKage if you squint, hinata has more game than me lmao, kuroo has to put up with so much from his team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 05:05:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5730499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aionslittlerodent/pseuds/aionslittlerodent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nekoma and Karasuno hold a surprise training camp, Kenma faces putting up with his unruly team and silently pining for Hinata, whose feelings aren't too obvious to Kenma.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Choose You

Kenma isn’t quite sure how he was dragged into a weekend trip to play a few matches and train with Karasuno, but here he was, sat on a crowded train, listening to his rambunctious teammates excitedly talk amongst themselves. Of course, he isn’t really participating in their conversations, his feline-like eyes are glued to his PS Vita screen as he dukes it out with a boss that he hasn’t defeated in a while. It’s not like he isn’t looking forward to seeing Shouyou and his other friends, if he can call them that, he just can’t be bothered with the hassle of getting to Karasuno, especially when the other team could have easily come to visit them. That being said, he knows that financially, Karasuno can’t make trips like that if they aren’t necessary. He pauses for a moment to take in the change of scenery, the busy streets of Tokyo long gone, now replaces with rolling hills with absolutely no people in sight. The sun illuminates the sky in a gorgeously warm pink hue which is a welcoming sight. Kenma can definitely get used to this.

Amongst the soft rattling of the train, he can hear Lev causing a ruckus, undoubtedly rubbing Yaku and a few other teammates up the wrong way in the process and before the commotion can get any worse, Kuroo steps in with the empty threat of sending Lev home if he doesn’t promptly shut up. Sure, it can be all too much at times for Kenma, with Lev’s persistently annoying loud voice and ignorant comments, followed by someone (mostly Yaku) turning around and giving a sharp elbow or knee to Lev’s side, but this is what’s normal for Nekoma, and it feels somehow slightly refreshing and satisfying to Kenma, who's glad that everything is normal, or as normal as things could possibly be. More than anything, he's just glad that he isn't who Lev's comments are directed at.

As the train approaches the station, Kenma is wary that he feels nervous, or something of the sort. Maybe it’s the anticipation of socialising with those he is still unfamiliar with, underneath his “don’t care” attitude, he very much _does_ care about what other people think. And then his train of thoughts lead him to think of Shouyou, and that’s when he knows what this feeling of anticipation is really all about. Shouyou is the one that ignited the spark that has started to grow and grow into fiery flames within him, the flames that flare before a match with Karasuno, and sometimes, feeling fired up happens in other matches too. When Kenma first had these feelings, he labelled it as admiration; he wasn’t the only one who found Shouyou’s volleyball playing to be captivating, he was fairly certain that anyone who saw Kageyama and Shouyou's freak quick watched in awe. It wasn't just the freak quick, but Shouyou's relentlessness and unwillingness to give up, all great qualities of a volleyball player, even if Shouyou's receives were nothing special.

And of course, it's not just Shouyou's skills in volleyball that are admired by Kenma; his feelings run much deeper than that. It's the way that Shouyou expresses himself with silly gestures, the way his face lights up and eyes widen when he sees something he likes, no matter how insignificant it might seem to others, the way...

Kenma feels a sharp pain against his forehead and blinks repeatedly, reluctantly coming out of his little daydream to see Kuroo smirking knowingly in front of him. As soon as Kuroo flashes his teeth in an even wider grin, Kenma realises that Kuroo has definitely caught on to his feelings, which was to be expected, the two had been friends since childhood and irritatingly enough, Kuroo could read Kenma easily. “Come on, let’s go and meet _Shouyou_ and the others.” Kuroo says innocently, although Kenma certainly doesn't miss the emphasis on one particular word. With a sigh, Kenma stands from his seat and gathers his Nekoma jacket before looking up at the bag rack above, silently signalling to Kuroo to retrieve his bag. The bed-haired captain hands Kenma his bag, his smirk still lingering as he leads the team off of the train.

When they reach the platform, Kenma finds himself looking around for Shouyou, confused to see neither Shouyou nor the rest of the Karasuno team nowhere in sight. His eyebrows slope downwards as Kenma frowns slightly in disappointment. This gesture definitely doesn't go unnoticed by Kuroo, who loudly announces that they will be meeting the others in their gym tomorrow. Said captain glances slyly over at Kenma and once again, he has his signature cocky smirk plastered on his face. Kenma can only hope that the situation doesn't get too out of hand...

\----------------------------------------

Nekoma arrived at the Karasuno gym a whole 30 minutes late, no thanks to Lev who had stayed up rather late, his excitement for the weekend getting the better of him. Needless to say, it was nigh on impossible to get him out of the small hostel they were staying at in good time, leading to a gruelling mountain run, followed by a quick dash to the changing rooms and a hasty change into their volleyball kits. Whilst Kenma wasn't usually one to care about the scenery, he could admit that it wasn't exactly unpleasant, and he had found himself fondly thinking of Shouyou's description of the route the team had taken to get to Karasuno.

_“Uwaah! Kenma, you should see the way I get to school! Going up the mountain is the hard bit, but when I reach the top I get to go whoosh as I go down the other side!”_

Shouyou's joyfulness was infectious, and Kenma knew how easily and often he found a smile finding its way onto his face whenever anything Shouyou-related happened, whether it be a text with ridiculous emojis from Shouyou to simply just thinking of him, even seeing the same unmistakable shade of orange that matches Shouyou's hair whilst walking around.

Letting out a small sigh, Kenma put his thoughts on hold as the Karasuno team entered the gym, his gaze fixated on the doorway they entered from as he eagerly awaited for Shouyou to turn up. It wasn't hard to know if Shouyou was nearby, the chirpy first year never failed to be loud wherever he went, often being heard before being seen. It seemed that whoever was going to be at this particular practice (everyone minus Kageyama and Shouyou) had arrived, and Kenma couldn't help but feel disappointed. He didn't seem to be the only one who looked this way, both Tanaka and Nishinoya dragged their feet as they approached Nekoma with sullen faces. Kenma decided not to question it.

The two teams broke off into pairs and small groups and began to greet each other, catching up a little on all of the news they had missed.

“Tora!” Tanaka immediately perked up at the sight of the other wing spiker, who greeted him just as loudly.

“What's got you looking so glum?” Yamamoto asked, concerned to see the usually loud and hot-headed Tanaka looking so down in the dumps.

“Kiyoko-san confessed to Yachi-san!” Karasuno's spiker wailed, Nishinoya joining the two of them in pouting and grieving over their lack of chance with Karasuno's much beloved (and lusted after) third year manager. Yamamoto joins them in pouting, and Kenma holds back the urge to roll his eyes at the sight. It wasn't like any of the troublesome trio had any chance with her. Hell, even he had a better chance with Shouyou than they did with Kiyoko.

Chaos approached the gym as the clatter of what seemed to be poles for the volleyball nets fell to the ground, followed by loud expletives and a familiar squawk, which Kenma could easily identify as Shouyou.

“Dumbass! Dumbass, stupid Hinata!” Kenma heard Kageyama bellow, it wasn't hard to tell that Shouyou had probably dropped the poles, he wasn't exactly well coordinated at times.

Kageyama walked in with a grumpy-looking Shouyou in tow, who trailed behind him dragging the poles against the gym floor. Kenma took a deep breath and mentally steadied himself, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible. He and the rest of the two teams silently watched Shouyou's eyes glimmer and widen, followed by Shouyou promptly dropping the poles again and hurtling towards Kenma with arms outstretched. Shouyou almost toppled the both of them over as he wrapped his arms tightly around Kenma, almost like a boa constrictor, but with more innocent and less deadly intentions.

If there was something that the Nekoma team had learned, it was that Kenma hated unneeded physical contact. Kuroo often forgot and would sometimes lean on Kenma or go to ruffle his hair, only to be met with a glare or unimpressed noise from Kenma. Seeing Kenma not try and fight Shouyou off was definitely a sight that surprised both Karasuno and Nekoma alike, causing Kuroo to glance around and hold back a devilish grin, a grin that Tsukishima and Kageyama had not bothered to hide. It was amazing really how neither Shouyou nor Kenma had thought that maybe the other liked them in a way that was definitely more than friends, and the other team members had even tried pushing them together, which had so far resulted in absolutely nothing.

“Hi, Shouyou.” Kenma softly spoke, his arms hanging limply by his sides. He revelled in the feeling of being held tightly by Shouyou and allowed himself to enjoy it, although he didn't make an effort to return the embrace, that was one step too far, mostly because they were surrounded by their teammates.

“Kenma! You're finally here!” Shouyou exclaimed, his eyes still just as wide as before, the corners of his mouth turned up in a gorgeous grin, a sight that made Kenma's heart ache. Much to Kenma’s dismay, Shouyou pulled away and his grin dissipated into a nervous smile. Kenma had heard of Shouyou getting extremely nervous before matches in the past, and to see him look so jittery all of a sudden made Kenma worry that maybe he should have hugged Shouyou back, it seemed like that’s what friends would do.

“Ah, I got ahead of myself; I know you don’t like people hugging you.” Shouyou mumbled in what seemed to be shame. His head hung low as he fiddled with the bottom hem of his practice shirt and gently kicked at the ground. This was definitely not a sight Kenma thought he would see, but he still couldn’t decipher exactly what Shouyou was feeling. Ashamed? Afraid? Kenma highly doubted that Shouyou would be afraid of hugging someone who didn’t want to be hugged. Especially when he knew that this was not one of Shouyou’s fears, not that he’d memorised them of course...

The feline setter simply shrugged and offered a tiny reassuring glimpse of a smile to Shouyou, hoping that it would go unnoticed by everyone else, who seemed to be more or less engaged in their own conversations. (They totally weren’t, it was simply too hard not to watch Shouyou and Kenma’s interactions, and Tsukishima was sure that he could probably find something to mock Hinata with later on). Shouyou accepted Kenma’s form of apology and awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck, glancing back and forth from Kenma a few times before brightening up somewhat.

“We should get started on practice! I wanna show you our new quick.” Shouyou stated proudly, although Kenma knew that this was more of an order, but from how Shouyou had stated it, Kenma could tell that Shouyou was very eager to show off whatever he’d learned since the last time they had seen each other. It was extremely touching to think that Shouyou always seem so invested in him, and dare Kenma admit it, it felt special to know that maybe Shouyou had a special place for him, despite Kageyama clearly being someone else who was dear to Shouyou.

Before Kenma could get the chance to respond, Shouyou called out to Kageyama, demanding to get ready to toss to him, it was obvious that Shouyou was set on impressing Kenma, which he didn't really mind. Shouyou shot off over to Kageyama, who seemed to be fairly disinterested in testing out their new quick before the first match between the two teams, he was sure that Shouyou was a complete idiot if he would willingly show the other team one of their weapons, it certainly would ruin the element of surprise. Nonetheless, it didn't take much to guess that Shouyou wanted to show off to Kenma, and it was probably better to just go with it, especially if it meant a chance of getting the two to confess to one another before the end of the weekend. Kageyama had put up with Shouyou constantly rattling off about how great Kenma was, and whilst he could barely appreciate that he clearly had it hard for Kenma, Kageyama was bored to death of hearing the same thing over and over again.

Daichi heard Shouyou run across the gymnasium towards Kageyama, which was a sign that the practice needed to get moving fairly quickly. However, Daichi had an agreement with Shouyou, an agreement that he wouldn’t start the practice until Hinata had kept his side of the deal. “Actually, Hinata, could you maybe get the rest of the equipment? I think you’ve forgotten to get something.” Karasuno’s captain called, turning towards the small redhead with an eyebrow raised. Before Shouyou could protest, Kuroo butted in, suggesting Kenma should help him. As soon as he’d heard that, Kenma’s eyes widened slightly before looking around in confusion. Why did it have to be him?

Kenma never got to have his question answered, his own body betraying him as he walked towards the doorway of the Karasuno gym with Shouyou trailing behind him. “I, ah, need to get my hoodie.” Hinata stated nervously, leaving Kenma to wait at the doorway whilst he went to retrieve his hoodie. It was puzzling, Hinata had rushed in without it and had seemed perfectly fine before, but now Kenma was certain that something was wrong, Shouyou's erratic behaviour a definite cause for concern.

Once Shouyou had returned, the atmosphere between the two had noticeably changed. Gone was the comfortable silence and in its place was a tense, uncertain silence with neither Kenma or Shouyou making an attempt to talk to each other. Situations like this didn't sit well with Kenma, he simply didn't know how to react when it was usually Shouyou doing the talking, that was how it always had been and Kenma loved it, Shouyou's constant talking was for him extremely easy to follow and somehow made Kenma feel like he could talk more than usual. Kenma didn't know what to make of this odd turn of events, and just walked along next to Shouyou.

Shouyou began walking a little faster before turning round and stopping Kenma, his cheeks tinted a slight pink. He reached into his hoodie pocket with trembling hands before grabbing one of Kenma's hands and shoving a card into the unsuspecting setter's hand. Kenma glanced down to the card, his eyes locking onto the bright writing across the front, his face heating up when he realised what the card was. The card was adorned with the Nekoma team colours, a fairly vibrant red with large white block writing with a messily drawn Pikachu in the middle. The writing read “I choose you!”, and that's when the penny dropped. All of Shouyou's weird behaviour was down to this one card. _Shouyou actually returned his feelings._

It was times like this that Kenma absolutely despised how he didn't always know what to say, the anxious and curious look Shouyou was giving him was a clear prompt to give Shouyou an answer of some sort, but all Kenma could do was stay rooted to the spot and stare at Shouyou like a deer caught in headlights, his throat as dry as a desert. The look of anticipation on Shouyou's face gradually changed into a crestfallen glum look as he focused his intense gaze to the floor, his lip caught in his teeth to prevent it from wobbling as Shouyou blinked away a few tears. More often than not, Shouyou tried to put a brave face on in situations, even if his true emotions easily showed, and it broke Kenma's heart to have to witness one of those brave faces, the disappointment now absolutely evident.

Shouyou turned to walk away, his confidence completely shattered. Kenma couldn't come up with what to say, he knew that he couldn't be like Shouyou, who could probably have a ten minute (and rather one sided) conversation with him about his feelings. No, that wasn't Kenma's style, and Kenma knew he wouldn't be able to pull it off. Instead Kenma sheepishly tugged on Shouyou's hoodie sleeve, holding his wrist gently, signalling to him that he didn't want him to leave. He never did, the times when they had to say goodbye to each other when they departed from the various training camps over the past year had been at face value, fairly ordinary, but deep down, neither of them could stand having to stay away from each other, texting each other wasn't enough. Shouyou faced back towards Kenma, cocking his head to the right in confusion. Silently, Kenma pulled Shouyou into a gentle hug, nuzzling his face gently into the crook of Shouyou's neck, his hair tickling the side of Shouyou's cheek.

Kenma hesitated before lifting his head a little and murmured softly into Shouyou's ear. “I really liked the card, Shouyou.” He was relieved to have been able to say something, although it wasn't some type of romantic confession that most people would want, but that didn't matter, it was more than enough and both he and Shouyou knew what it meant.

“I'm glad you like it, I tried really hard!” Shouyou said excitedly, his mood immediately picking up. He pulled back to give Kenma a grin wide enough to put Kenma's worries to rest. When people described Shouyou as the sun, they weren't lying. For Kenma, he absolutely outshone anyone else, his infectious grin and radiant (and sometimes odd) charm, Kenma was completely drawn to him and always watched him in silent awe.

The situation still didn't feel real, and Shouyou repeatedly found himself glancing towards Kenma to double check that in fact it was actually Kenma whose arms were wrapped around him, that is was Kenma he had just successfully confessed to, and that it was Kenma who stood before him and had returned his feelings. Shouyou definitely knew that this training camp would always be his favourite. Kenma was convinced that he hadn't been happier at any point in his life, even managing to get his favourite games on their release dates couldn't compare to the elevated feeling he was experiencing, and he was certain that nothing could ever compare.

\---------------------------- ( _A day later.)_

Only having a weekend to spend with each other turned out to be extremely difficult, especially when volleyball seemed to take over. Even when both teams had some time to relax, it was almost impossible to spend time with Shouyou on his own (Lev clearly didn't have a clue when Shouyou and Kenma wanted to sit by themselves) and Kenma felt bad to think that even after discovering Shouyou's feelings for him, his expectations for the weekend hadn't been quite met. With the matches leading up to nationals coming up, it was hard to predict just how much he or Shouyou could visit each other. It was a disappointing end to the training camp, but it had turned out better than Kenma could ever have imagined when he was sat on the train to Karasuno, where he had daydreamed about Shouyou and hadn't really had much of a hope for the training camp ahead.

This time Karasuno had decided to go to the train station to see Nekoma off, and almost everyone stood around telling each other about how excited and determined they were to see each other again at nationals. Everyone had become caught up in their own conversations, their attention away from Shouyou and Kenma, who had chosen a quieter spot on the platform that was partially hidden by a vending machine. Kenma wasn't good with goodbyes, which Shouyou appreciated, it gave him an excuse to just hold onto Kenma tightly, their bodies doing the talking. Kenma wanted it to last forever, the feeling of being in someone's arms that you cared about deeply was new and Kenma didn't wanted to forget how it felt, not after the period of time he'd spent convincing himself that there was no way in hell that Shouyou could have any real interest in him, not when Shouyou had Kageyama. Kenma happily sighed and smiled to himself at his stupidity, he couldn't believe how wrong he had been.

A pair of lips found themselves planted against Kenma's cheek, causing Kenma's fingers to curl a little more tightly around Shouyou. The gesture made Kenma's cheeks turn a lightish pink, making Kenma thankful that Shouyou couldn't see his face. The sun shone brightly above them, and Kenma knew that he now had something else to make him think of Shouyou when he was back in Tokyo. Physical affection didn't usually come so naturally to Kenma, but for once, he felt a little more confident as he returned the kiss by pressing his lips gently to the top of Shouyou's head, his eyes closing in contentment. The train could be heard approaching, and both Kenma and Shouyou knew that it was time for them to let go of each other. They offered each other a sincere and warm smile before stepping apart, walking over to join the rest of the group.

Kuroo gathered the Nekoma team up, making sure to keep Lev in his sight, it was impossible to tell what could happen if he took his attention away from him for more than a second, and he could seriously do without explaining why he had managed to forget to ensure that a member of his team hadn't been left behind. Shouyou waved to Kenma, and this time the goodbye didn't seem so sad, Kenma knew he had a lot to look forward to and knew that his relationship with Shouyou could only grow from this point onwards. The team boarded the train and watched through the windows as the doors departed, the train creaking into motion. Shouyou continuously waved his hand around enthusiastically, managing to knock Tsukishima's glasses from his face and whacking Kageyama across the face. The train gradually became a speck in the distance, but Shouyou had nothing to feel gloomy about, and secretly he hoped that Kenma was thinking of him as well.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first proper drabble/minific, so please go easy on me! I would love for some feedback. This is unbeta'd just as a warning and was mostly written when I've been ridiculously tired. Enjoy! P.S. please inform me of any mistakes!


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